John Tortorella's season with the Vancouver Canucks was bad at face value — they fell apart once the calendar flipped and wound up missing the playoffs. Also, he tried to fight an entire other team.

It got worse (and more confusing) after the Canucks fired general manager Mike Gillis. Vancouver's ownership group, led by Francisco Aquilini, threatened legal action against media outlets for reporting that they largely made the decision to hire Tortorella, rather than Gillis.

John Tortorella (AP Photo)

All that happened while Tortorella was still technically the coach. He's not anymore, courtesy of new president Trevor Linden's first big move, but that doesn't mean the weirdness has abated. Gary Mason of the Toronto Globe and Mail, speaking on Vancouver's Team 1040, dropped a few more bombs.

Mason's pieces of reportage, in order of ascending weirdness:

— Tortorella wanted to buy out winger Alex Burrows. That's not a surprise — Burrows is 33, carries a $4.5 million through 2017, and is coming off his worst season (15 points in 49 games) since 2007-08. A lot of that was fueled by injuries and bad luck, but Burrows' contract is bad regardless, and he has a history of rubbing people the wrong way.

— Players didn't think they practiced enough. The standings seem to back that up. It's ironic, though, and maybe not coincidental, that Tortorella's exit from New York came partially because he worked the Rangers too hard. Maybe Nice Torts is not better Torts.

— Tortorella went the whole season without speaking to his AHL coach. Yes, according to Mason, he managed to go several months without having a single conversation with Travis Green. That would be ... almost impressive. To be fair, the Utica Comets didn't have many prospects worth talking about, but wow.

Regardless, if the Canucks are looking for a coach who runs long practices and communicates ad nauseam with his AHL staff, the Pittsburgh Penguins are about to fire one of those. Dan Bylsma, meet Trevor Linden.